Undated handout photo. Subject line is: Global Catalyst Foundation 2. Forwarded by David Tong.
Photo sent by Jeff Schneiderman, Gobal Catalyst Foundation
Note: Largest this photo can run because of image quality issues is: 3.951 inches wide. less

Undated handout photo. Subject line is: Global Catalyst Foundation 2. Forwarded by David Tong.
Photo sent by Jeff Schneiderman, Gobal Catalyst Foundation
Note: Largest this photo can run because of image ... more

Photo: Handout

Photo: Handout

Image
1of/4

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 4

Undated handout photo. Subject line is: Global Catalyst Foundation 2. Forwarded by David Tong.
Photo sent by Jeff Schneiderman, Gobal Catalyst Foundation
Note: Largest this photo can run because of image quality issues is: 3.951 inches wide. less

Undated handout photo. Subject line is: Global Catalyst Foundation 2. Forwarded by David Tong.
Photo sent by Jeff Schneiderman, Gobal Catalyst Foundation
Note: Largest this photo can run because of image ... more

Inside a modest three-story house along a dusty, potholed backstreet in Cambodia's capital, dozens of men and women sit in neat rows typing data in a foreign language, ready to be dispatched to overseas clients in digital format.

For the disadvantaged and disabled people who work at this nonprofit company, it's a rare opportunity to land a good job in a country where many struggle to find work and join the global tech economy.

Partly funded by Global Catalyst, a Silicon Valley foundation, Digital Divide Data is the brainchild of two former McKinsey & Co. colleagues who first went to Cambodia on vacation. They came away determined to help a struggling country to bridge the much-debated gulf between technological haves and have-nots.

The result: a nonprofit company that sets aside programming jobs for people,

including land mine victims and polio sufferers, who would otherwise struggle to find paid work.

One of those workers is Nut Pove, a 22-year-old who lost the use of his left leg in a childhood accident. "I like working here because I can also study at the university and improve my computer skills," he said, fingering his keyboard.

In another room, Eng Nalaek is busy digitizing a 19th century Arabic dictionary for Tufts University. Smoothing her black jacket and bobbed hair, she said in English that she's amazed and delighted to find this kind of work available in Phnom Penh.

Born with three fingers on each hand, she's the second-fastest typist in the company, said President Tim Keller, a former investment banker from San Francisco.

"She claims that extra fingers (would) just get in the way," Keller said with a wry smile. "I think one of the beautiful things about technology is that it overcomes physical limitations."

In many ways, Digital Divide Data is following a trail blazed in India, which has become a virtual back office for U.S. companies during the past decade. Indian companies can provide a full range of information technology services, including data entry and HTML coding for Western companies with high overheads and expanding data needs.

However, as India moves up the technology curve and offers more high-tech services, there is room for developing countries such as Cambodia and neighboring Vietnam to work on high-volume, low-margin contracts.

INDIAN SOFTWARE HELPS

India is also pivotal in another way: It has developed software used for coding images, a double-entry system that helps workers at Digital Divide Data enter data accurately, whether they understand the text or not.

"It's very simple stuff, but it's vital for achieving high levels of quality. We basically learned the data entry business from India," Keller said.

All work is sent to a partner company, CyberData in Delhi, for quality control before it is sent via Internet or courier to clients. Because India's reputation for IT services is better known than Cambodia's lesser name, this routine is necessary, at least for now.

To critics of globalization, all this may sound like a low-wage sweatshop hiding behind a philanthropic facade.

Indeed, the company drew flak when it won its first contract, from Harvard University to digitize back issues of its student newspaper. A columnist in a Boston newspaper accused Harvard of exploiting Third-World workers.

None of this stopped the project. Instead, the publicity helped generate more business from U.S. customers, particularly universities with large libraries. They liked the idea of paying a nonprofit in Cambodia to put rare texts online.

As General Manager Nhev Sithsophary, a former union activist in Cambodia, likes to point out, Digital Divide Data pays workers more for doing less and sticks to its social mission by employing the unemployed.

Data programmers work 36 hours a week in six-hour shifts for $70 a month, compared with an average $45 for garment workers in Phnom Penh, who put in much longer hours. In addition to providing medical benefits, the company encourages workers to study on their own time by paying 50 percent of their tuition costs.

Perhaps the most crucial question for those involved in getting the project off the ground is what happens next.

For Michael Chertock, managing director of Global Catalyst, a Redwood City foundation that provided seed money and a grant to get Digital Divide Data off the ground, the key is to create a long-term business, not a simple handout.

"We look for ways that technology can be applied in developing countries in ways that can be financially sustainable," said Chertock, whose foundation donates $1 million per year to seed technology and education ventures in developing countries "I don't know if you can prove something is sustainable until 5 to 10 years down the road."

COMPETITION BEGINS

On a recent visit to Phnom Penh to check on Digital Divide Data's expansion plans, Chertock heard that a local company had begun hiring programmers and offering similar IT services, though without any philanthropic underpinning.

Far from griping about copycats, however, Chertock cheered that development because it's exactly the kind of growth and entrepreneurship that he wants to facilitate.

In its second year of operation, the company has managed to generate sufficient income, about $100,000 per year, including local contracts, to cover its basic costs. Medical coverage for workers is funded by grants from donors including the Asia Foundation and the British government's aid organization.

Digital Divide Data is not sitting still. Using a second grant from Global Catalyst, it recently appointed a full-time marketing agent in San Francisco to drum up more clients.

In March, its workforce will expand to 100, up from about 70, and it plans to open branch offices in Cambodia and possibly in Laos and Burma.

Among the newcomers in March will be women who were rescued from the sex trade that flourishes in Cambodia. It's a reminder of the harsh realities and the scarcity of economic opportunities in one of Asia's poorest nations.

"You see signs for English classes and computer training everywhere in Phnom Penh," Nhev said. "Cambodians try to learn more and more, but they see that afterward they can't find a job because their skills are still too low. That's why we decided to start this business."

As for disabled employee Nut, who joined the company in 2001, he sees his job as a step toward his goal of running his own business. "I'm studying computer science, and in the future I plan to open a workshop to service computers," he said.